1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of accessories which prevent damage to doors and, more particularly, to a device readily usable by real estate agents and like personnel which will prevent the marring and scarring of doors when a real estate lockbox is placed upon the door knob. Such lockboxes allow real estate agents ease of access to the property at desired times.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For many years in the real estate field it has been common that properties for sale would have, located on a door knob of a door to the property, a lockbox which contained a key for that particular property. The lockbox would be accessible only to qualified real estate agents who either had a key for the lockbox or a matching combination to gain entrance to the lockbox and the property key secured therein. The purpose of the lockbox is to allow real estate agents easy access to a listed property at desired times without the various real estate agents having to carry a multitude of keys for all possible listed properties.
However, one severe problem was found to occur with the lockboxes. Generally, the lockboxes tend to be rather cumbersome and heavy, by necessity, to prevent unauthorized tampering and vandalism of the box. Therefore, when the shackle of the lockbox was placed around the door knob the box would tend to swing around the door knob if the door was opened or closed rapidly. For instance, if the door was opened and then closed very quickly the lockbox would have a tendency to swing toward the near edge of the door and at about the time the door reached the door jam. In such a situation the lockbox frequently had swung to a position between the door and the door jam and this would cause the lockbox to be slammed against the door jam, frequently causing damage thereto. Another problem that is generally encountered is that the lockbox, when it swings upon opening and closing the door tends to scratch and mar the door facing.
In the pst, various devices have been proposed to remedy the above-noted deficiencies. One such remedy was to install a rub plate around the door knob s that the lockbox would not scar the door should it swing as the door was opened or closed. However, the protective plate did not prevent the lockbox from damaging the door jam if the box got caught between the door and the jam upon closing. To remedy the latter situation devices have been proposed which limit the swing of the lockbox, but these devices have not found great favor due to several deficiencies which made the devices either cumbersome to use or rather ineffective in their use.